


Day 9: Christmas Tree

by BluePlanetTrash



Series: Merry Langstmas (12 Days of Christmas) [9]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Hypothermia, Lance (Voltron) Whump, Merry Langstmas, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-16
Updated: 2018-01-16
Packaged: 2019-03-05 19:19:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13394499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BluePlanetTrash/pseuds/BluePlanetTrash
Summary: When Lance's family was too busy to go pick out a Christmas tree, he decided to do them a favor and go pick it up himself. As usual, things don't go to plan and that leaves Lance struggling in the cold for rescue.





	Day 9: Christmas Tree

He was a bit disappointed when it got around to a few days before Christmas and his family still hadn’t gotten a Christmas tree. Really, he couldn’t blame them, they were extremely busy that year. So many things, good and bad had happened and they didn’t really have time to go that year.

“Mamá, I can go by myself if you want,” he suggested that morning as his mother raced around the kitchen trying to get everything ready for the holiday. His Papá, Mark, and Marie were all busy working during the days leading up to Christmas and Caleb and Sophie were spending a lot of their time at school and with their friends before the hustle and bustle of Christmas overwhelmed them.

“Are you sure?” She asked as she pulled a tray out of the oven. She turned to him and pulled him closer, planting a kiss on his forehead.

“Yeah mamá, its the least I can do,” he insisted walking over to the closet and pulling his coat, hat, and gloves out. It had snowed the night before and the temperature had dropped, preserving the blanket of snow outside.

“Should you really be going all alone though?” She asked with a worried tone. Lance laughed, waving off her worries.

“It’s only a tree, what could possibly happen?”

Someone must hate him somewhere. That is the only explanation for what happened. He was currently laying trapped underneath the tree that he just cut down. It wasn’t a very big tree, small enough that he could drag it back to his car and strap it on, but he fell into deep enough snow that he didn’t have any leverage to push himself up again. If that wasn’t bad enough, he fell on top of a frozen creek and cracked the ice, now his entire back was soaked. He couldn’t even move his arms enough to reach for his phone since they were sticking straight up.

“Help! Can anybody hear me!?” He called out, only hearing his voice echo out slightly from where he was trapped. He didn’t have much hope of someone hearing him since the tree farm he went to was practically abandoned when he got there. He struggled trying to get up as frustrated tears welled up in his eyes. He needed to get out of there, if he didn’t it was entirely possible that he was going to die there. He didn’t tell his mamá where he was going, or anybody really.

“HELP!” He screamed out louder as the panic fully set in. As he squirmed in his makeshift prison, snow fell off of the tree’s branch and landed on his face. He let out a small whimper as tears rolled down his cheeks melting the snow. He didn’t know what he was supposed to do. He was scared. He was alone, and he felt so stupid.

* * *

Hunk laughed with his mom while they watched Ellen on TV. Their focus shifted to the doorway when his father walked in holding the cordless phone.

“Phone for you Hunk,” he said holding it out to him. Hunk furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, if any of his friends were trying to contact him they would have texted him. He got up from the couch and took the phone from his dad and walked out of the living room.

“Hello?”

“Hunk?”

“Mrs. McClain?” He asked in confusion. He had never gotten a call from Lance’s mom before.

“Hunk, have you seen Lance, he went out to get a tree around 11 today and he still hasn’t come home,” she said, her voice obviously panicked. Hunk’s eyes widened and he looked at the clock on the oven. It read 4:23.

“No, Mrs. McClain I haven’t, I can get everyone and we can go look for him,” he said determinedly. He knew that Lance wasn’t someone to worry his friends and family on purpose, so something must have happened.

“Thank you so much Hunk, we’re looking around the house and neighbourhood to see if anyone has seen him,” she informed him, he could hear the slight warble in her voice.

“I’ll call you immediately if we find Lance,” he said before saying goodbye and hanging up. He took out his phone and started texting the group chat telling them that they had to meet up somewhere and that it was an emergency. They decided to meet at Pidge’s since her parents weren’t going to be home for a while.

Everybody got there before Hunk and immediately started questions when he got through the door.

“They can’t find Lance, he went out to get a Christmas tree about five hours ago and haven’t seen him since,” they stood in shocked silence before Pidge whipped out her laptop.

“I’m going to track his phone, it won’t be exact but we’ll have a basic area to work with,” she said before anyone could ask any questions. As soon as she had a location she flipped the screen around showing everyone the address.

“A tree farm? He could be anywhere in there,” Keith said worriedly.

“At least we know where he is, let’s go,” Shiro said, picking his coat up from where he flung it over the couch and grabbed his keys on his way out the door. The rest of them following close behind him. As they walked out the door towards Shiro’s car, they noticed that it had started to snow again and they hoped that Lance at least a little protected from the elements where ever he was.

* * *

If it wasn’t for the water that was soaking into his back, the snow around him would have kept him at least a bit warm. He had been shivering violently for the past couple of hours at least. Since he had become trapped he hadn’t stopped crying, the feeling of panic had yet to cease. At least it gave him something to concentrate on, rather than the overwhelming urge to fall asleep. He had no idea whether anyone had even noticed that he hadn’t come home yet. Sure, he knew that his mamá would eventually notice but sometimes it felt like he was the most unimportant one in the house.

Obviously, it was an awful thing to think since there shouldn’t really be a ranking for that in a family but you can’t help but think about where you stand in relation to your siblings in your parent’s eyes.

He didn’t even know what he was thinking about anymore. The numbing chill was finally starting to go to his brain. A hysterical laugh bubbled out of his mouth before he clamped his mouth shut. He noticed a little bit ago that it had started snowing again, the tree that was covering him kept most of the new flakes out but they also started to pile on top, making the boughs lean down close to his face. He really hoped that it wouldn’t fall on his face, he would actually start bawling if it did. Not that he hadn’t already that day but still.

His eyes started fluttering shut slightly as the thoughts continued to fly through his head. He was so tired. He was really sick of trying to stay awake. It was like trying to stay awake after pulling an all-nighter when you really didn’t need to stay away.

“Just a little snooze,” he mumbled to himself as he eyes slipped shut and his body started to relax in the snow.

They shot open again when he heard a faint call in the distance. He strained to hear, hoping that it wasn’t a howl of wind that he heard. He waited in tense silence, head tilted to the side so it wasn’t blocked by the snow.

He could barely hear it over the rushing wind, and natural blockade of the tree.

“Lance!” He heard a voice yell out from far away. Tears of relief welled up in his eyes and he sucked in a breath before screaming out.

“HELP!”

He and the voice continued their yells as they got closer and closer to him until finally, he saw the beam of a flashlight roam over the branches of the tree and stop on where his gloved hand was sticking up of the snow.

“Oh my god Lance!” The voice he now recognized as Shiro cried out. He could hear him plowing through the deep snow towards him. He sobbed in complete happiness and relief when he pulled the tree off of him and pulled him up. Even as he was put on solid ground, his legs buckled beneath him and he clutched onto Shiro’s jacket desperately so he wouldn’t fall to the ground.

As Shiro’s eyes roved over Lance, he noticed that he was violently shivering, his teeth were chattering against each other, his cheeks were bright red, but his lips were slightly blue. He scooped him up in his arms and started rushing back to the car, fishing his phone out of his pocket in order to call everybody back to the car.

“Sorry Lance,” Shiro said as he started stripping him out of his wet clothes and wrapped him in the spare blankets he had in the trunk of his car. He picked him up again and laid him in the passenger seat and cranked the heat up, directing the warm flow over to him. He called each of them to let them know that he had found Lance and that he was resting in the car. It took less than a minute for Hunk to come sprinting out of the forest and slide into the car behind Lance and wrap his arms around the seat to hug him.

“Are you okay man?” He asked tearfully, pressing his head into the headrest in front of him.

“I’m cold,” Lance rasped, his lips no longer chattering but exhaustion was starting to creep over him. Hunk and Shiro both nodded in understanding.

After a few minutes, Pidge and Keith jogged out of the woods and climbed into the car, both asking him the same question and receiving the same answer. As they drove back to Lance’s house, after Keith and Pidge switched to Lance’s car so it wouldn’t be left behind, Hunk called Lance’s mom assuring her that he was safe and they were on their way back. Before Hunk could hang up, Lance reached out a trembling hand for the phone.

“Mamá?” He asked. There was a loud sigh of relief on the other end.

“Lance? Are you okay? Are you hurt?” She asked calmly. On the inside, though she was frantic. She couldn’t imagine what had happened to her little boy that he wasn’t able to come home for hours.

“I’m fine mamá,” He said quietly before tearing up slightly. “I’m sorry,” he warbled.

“What? For what?” She asked in confusion.

“I’m sorry for worrying you I didn’t mean to, and I’m sorry I didn’t get the tree,” he cried, clutching the phone to his cheek. Rosa’s heart broke, that’s what he was worried about?

“It’s okay honey, it’s all okay,” she soothed. She could hear him sniffling through the phone and wanted more than anything to be cradling him in her arms at that moment. At least he would be home soon and she would be able to do just that.

“Tomorrow, we’ll all go out together to get a Christmas tree, okay Lance?” She asked.

“Okay,” he agreed quietly, wiping his eyes. He couldn’t wait to get home. All he wanted right now was one of his mamá’s warm hugs.

“I’ll see you soon, I love you,”

“I love you too, mamá,”

**Author's Note:**

> Come visit me at my Tumblr too!: https://blueplanettrash.tumblr.com/


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